Speak No Evil was intriguing to me from the first trailer. Mostly because I love James McAvoy and he is really great at being creepy and disturbing. I will say that I had doubts about this being a full feature film. You can only be creepy for so long before it's repetitive and boring. But in James McAvoy we trust.
From the get there is great chemistry between this core cast. Our main family makes vacation friends with this creepy family. And immediately McAvoy is creepy, right away Louise is uncomfortable with their comments on her parenting, and right off the bat it is clear that there is some tension between Ben and Louise.
They decide to go visit this creepy family on their farm…that is certainly a choice. Look when we talk about scary movies some people are of the mind that you can’t judge the characters choices too harshly because they aren’t aware of what genre they are in. HOWEVER, if you are a young woman home alone in your underwear and you hear a noise coming from the kitchen or the basement, you should just assume you are in a horror movie and don’t go check that shit out. If a family who seems a little off and whom you barely know invites you to stay with them on their rural farm, you should assume that you are in a horror movie and…don’t go.
Okay let’s count the calculated creepiness;
Paddy knows that Louise is a vegetarian. They have an entire conversation about it. Yet when they go visit, he makes a big deal about the goose he slaughtered and cooked and made her try the first bite.
They told this family that their son has a condition that makes it hard for him to communicate. But when this kid opens his mouth, it looks like his tongue was cut off. The fact that this kid is functionally mute unless he’s yelling is certainly creepy.
Paddy’s wild changes in attitude/behavior. How he snaps at his son is very concerning and is obviously violent.
Then we have the weird parenting corrections, and the overall controlling behavior from Paddy.
This poor little boy is trying to get Agnes to understand something but she doesn’t get it. The engraving on Paddy’s watches mean something. He’s got scars and bruises all over his body, obviously from his dad.
They decide to leave after Louise finds her daughter in bed with this whole ass family. But they have to turn back because of this 12 year olds attachment to her stuffed animal. I will agree with Ben on this one. You should not have this much anxiety over a stuffed animal at 12 years old. Mom coddled her way too much. Look, I get that certain neurodivergence's need safety items, but the reality is that you can’t control everything and things happen so as a parent you need to teach your children coping mechanisms for when they do not have these safety items. Coddling them is never the correct answer.
Then we have the creepy basement of stuff that this family has taken from other families they had over. It's clearly a little murder farm and this little boy shows it to Agnes, and the parents did in fact cut his tongue off.
The actual stress, and running does happen until the last 35 minutes of the movie, so it was structured really well. They try to leave and then chaos happens. The creepy family traps them in, uses their son to lure them back. Then the actual chase begins.
I think that as far as scary movies go it was pretty solid. The creep factor was set up quite well, and it was maintained throughout the film. There was an actual emotional drive behind our main characters, something that often gets tossed to the side with horror films. Obviously, the casting was incredible. James McAvoy really is the saving grace of every movie he’s in. All that said, there are a lot of factors I consider when giving my numbered ratings, so because of the re-watchability factor and overall narrative quality, it is getting a 7/10. It was good but it is not considered required viewing.
About the Creator
Alexandrea Callaghan
Certified nerd, super geek and very proud fangirl.
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